The United States Army Heritage and Education Center (USAHEC), in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, is the U.S. Army's primary historical research facility. Formed in 1999, the center consists of the Military History Institute (MHI), the Army Heritage Museum (AHM), the U.S. Army Conservation Center, and the Visitor and Education Services. The Army Heritage and Education Center is part of the U.S. Army War College, but has its own 56-acre (230,000 m2) campus in Middlesex Township nearby Carlisle Barracks. The center aims to preserve and interpret the heritage of the U.S. Army. It acquires, preserves, and makes publicly available Army-related library and archival materials. The current research collection contains military history books, military newspapers, technical and field manuals, periodicals, veteran’s surveys, photographs, and transcribes oral histories. The collections include material from as early as the French and Indian War to current U.S. Army operations. The USAHEC also provides interpretive exhibits and educational outreach programs to foster a greater understanding of the Army's central role in the growth, development and protection of the nation and its way of life. The USAHEC motto is "Telling the Army story, one soldier at a time."[1]
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As of 2011[update], the U.S. Army Heritage and Education Center is undergoing extensive expansions to upgrade the facilities. The three primary working buildings are the Visitor and Education Center, Ridgway Hall, and the Interim Storage Facility. The new conservation facility is in its final stages and will house the artifact collections and conservation laboratories. The campus also includes a one mile (1.6 km) long outdoor Army Heritage Trail. The Trail consists of macro-exhibits showcasing various periods of the United States Army’s history.
Named after Army chief of staff General Matthew B. Ridgway (1895–1993), commander of the 82nd Airborne Division in World War II and of United Nations forces in the Korean War, Ridgway Hall opened to the public in 2004. Home of the Military History Institute, the 66,000-square-foot (6,100 m2) hall holds over 15 million items (books, periodicals, manuscripts, photographs, military publications) on U.S. Army history, covering the pre-French and Indian War era to current operations. The collections also includes one of the largest American Civil War photograph collection in the world. The research facility is open to the public during normal operating hours, and enjoys use by scholars, students, genealogists, and researchers of all kinds. Along with a reading room for researchers, the hall also has several small exhibits that display artifacts and photographs from USAHEC holdings. Currently, the Ridgway Hall exhibits includes a room covering the life and career of General of the Army Omar Nelson Bradley, the U.S. Army’s last five star general[2] and an exhibit showcasing the USAHEC American Civil War photograph collection (under construction). Staff in Ridgway Hall—including staff from the Army Heritage Museum and the U.S. Army Conservation Center—oversee the acquisition and conservation of all USAHEC holdings, the cataloging of books and other items, the processing of archival collections, the transcription of oral histories, the writing of research bibliographies and other finding aids, and patron and visitor service.
The Visitor and Education Center opened in May, 2011, to the general public. It serves as the welcome and orientation site for visitors to the facility. The building includes a 7,000-square-foot (650 m2) museum exhibit space, a gift shop, and two large multipurpose rooms for conferences and lectures.
The 8,000-square-foot (740 m2) museum interim storage facility holds most of the Army Heritage Museum's artifacts and curatorial work space. It is not open to the public. As of June, 2011, the new Conservation Facility is nearing completion. The new facility contains artifact and paper conservation laboratories, museum and curatorial office space, and will house the storage facility for the museum artifacts.
The Army Heritage Trail, a one-mile (1.6 km) walking path of outdoor exhibits and markers on various eras in U.S. Army history. Notable exhibits include:
The Army Heritage Trail is open for visitation dawn to dusk daily. The buildings and structures on the trail are only open when the USAHEC buildings are open.
Each year, the USAHEC hosts two large living history events.[3] At the beginning of the summer, Army Heritage Days, in recognition of Armed Forces Day in the United States, features re-enactors from all eras of U.S. Army History occupying the Army Heritage Trail. At the end of the summer, the event theme changes from year to year. In 2009 and 2010, the theme was 18th and 19th century U.S. Army history concentrating on the American Revolution. In 2011, the theme will be the sesquicentennial of the first winter of the American Civil War. At both events, various exhibits and demonstrations are held to allow the public to interact with the living historians.
The U.S. Army Military History Institute pre-dates the U.S. Army Heritage and Education Center by over 30 years. Formed in 1967 as the Military History Research Collection, a branch of the U.S. Army War College Library, the institute became the primary repository for unofficial Army historical materials. Official U.S. Army records and other materials belong to the National Archives.[4] For most of its existence, the institute was housed in Upton Hall on Carlisle Barracks. Built in 1941 as an academic building for the Medical Field Service School, Upton Hall was adequate as a library but ill-suited for the size and preservation needs of a major archive.
Secretary of the Army Louis Caldera formed the Army Heritage and Education Center in June 1999 as a means of bringing an Army museum to Carlisle and promoting the holdings of the institute. His successor Thomas E. White approved the construction of a new facility, the present-day Ridgway Hall, in 2001. He stated:
"We will relocate its [the institute's] documents and holdings--the unofficial history of the United States Army--into a newly built state-of-the art archive, give that facility responsibility for administering historical documents and photographs Army wide, and associate it with an educational facility and a museum"[1].
The center, including the holdings of the institute, relocated from Upton Hall to Ridgway Hall in 2004, officially opening on September 24. The Army named the building for former Army chief of staff General Matthew B. Ridgway (1895–1993), commander of the 82nd Airborne Division in World War II and of United Nations forces in the Korean War.
The Army Heritage Museum, formed with the center in 1999, held its artifacts mostly in storage in various places on Carlisle Barracks before the construction of its interim storage facility beside Ridgway Hall in 2004. By 2005, the center created the Army Heritage Trail and began placing historical markers and large artifacts such as tanks and field artillery on display for public view. The first permanent structures, the Civil War cabins, officially opened in October of that year. The Trail continued to grow and evolve over time, and continues to expand today. In 2009, the USAHEC broke ground for the Visitor and Education Center as plans for the continued growth of the campus continued. In May 2011, the Center opened to the public and serves as the welcome and orientation site for all visitors to the campus. The building features a 7,000-square-foot (650 m2) exhibit space and two multipurpose rooms for conferences and other presentations.
Along with further expansion of the Army Heritage Trail, the U.S. Army Heritage and Education Center plans two additional buildings for the near future. As of June, 2011, the U.S. Army Conservation Center is under construction, slated to open by winter, 2011, will improve paper and object conservation of USAHEC collections by providing facilities for conservation and analytical laboratories, artifact storage, conservation science research, and public educational opportunities. The building will not be open to the general public. Plans also include the construction of the 50,000-square-foot (4,600 m2) Army Heritage Center Facility sometime in the future. Museum staff will use the facility to exhibit its many artifacts relating to the service of individual soldiers in the U.S. Army.
The U.S. Army Heritage and Education Center is supported by a private foundation, the Army Heritage Center Foundation, which helps the center with development and educational efforts. It oversaw fundraising for the construction of the Visitor and Education Center and is raising funds for the Army Heritage Center Facility.